Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-03-09
ARE MONKEYS MIMICS?

ARE MONKEYS MINICS?
The authority of Scripture Il Kings, x:22)
warrants the belief that monkeys formed
an article of commerce rs much as twenty
eight centuries ago, so that no lack OF time
can have prevented us from studying the
habits of our four-handed relative; yet it
would hardly be an overestimate to say that
nine hundred and ninety-nine OF a thousand
men persist in the belief that monkeys have
passion for initiating the actions of their
two-handed kinsmen that, for instance, an
ape. seeing his master shave himself, would
take the first opportunity to get hold of a
razor and scrape or cut his own throat.
Now, how could that idea ever survive this
age of geological gardens? Marcus Aureli-
US held that the sum of all ethics was the
rule to 'love truth and justice, and live
without anger, in the midst of lying and
unjust men," Yet the occupation ofa mon
key-traner would put that tolerance to
severe test. With an intelligence surprising
that of the most intelligent dog, monkey
combines an ultra-mulish degree of obstina-
cy, and, rather than initiate the demonstra-
tive manipulations of the kindest instructor,
he will sham fear, sham lameness, sham
heart-disease, and generally wind up by
falling down in sham fit of epieptic con-
vulsions. I have owned monkeys of at
least twenty different species, and have new
er been able to discover the slightest trace
of that supposed penchant for mimicry: A
boy may take off his coat and turn a thou
sand somersets, Jacko will watch the phe-
nomenon only with view to getting MS
fingers into the pockets of the unguarded
Jacko will witness the proceeding with calm
Indifference, unless more emphatic repe-
tition of the manguvre should make him
duck his head to dodge an anticipated blow.
He has no desire to follow any human pre-
cedents whatever, and the apparent excep-
tions from that rule, on his part, wholly un-
Intentional and merely natural result of
anatomical analogies. An angry hamadry-
as baboon, for instance, will strike the
ground with his fist, not because any Chris
tian visitors have ever set him that bad eX-
thus, for ages, vented their wrath on the
rocks of the Nubian highlands. A capuchin
monkey will pick huckleberries with his
fingers, not in Difference to civilized Gus
toms, but because his fingers are deft and
long, and his jaws are very short. Nay,
that same capuchin monkey, admitted to
seat at the breakfast-table of a punctilious
family, would be apt to show his contempt
ofcourt by sticking his head in the pudding
dish. The compulsive methods of profess
sional trainers may modify that perversity,
but during the recess the redeemed four
handler is sure to drop his mask, and, unlike
a trained dog, will never volunteer the per-
formance of a popular trick.-Dr. Feiir Il.
Os,Uald, in Popular Science Monthly.
A CUNNING CREDITOR.-Some years ago
four merchant creditors from an eastern
city started in the same train of cars for the
purpose of attaching the property of Ger.
tain debtor in an interior town. lie owed
each one separately, and each was suspicious
of the object of the other, but did not dare
say Il word about it although they were
all acquainted. When they arrived at the
from where the debtor did business, they
found buta solitary cab, to which all rush
ed. Three got in and refused admittance
to the fourth and the cab started. The
fourth ran after and got upon the outside
with the driver. He asked the driver if
he wanted to sell his horse. The driver re-
piled that he did not; that he was not worth
more than $50, but he would not sell him
for that. He was asked if he would take
slOO for the animal. "Yes,"' said Jehu.
The fourth man quickly paid over the
money, took the reins and backed the cab
up so that the door could not be readily
opened, jumped upon the horses back and
rode off at a quick lope, while the insiders
were gazing out of the window. He
rode to a lawyer, and had a writ made out
and served and his debt secured and got
around to the hotel just as the ''insiders'
came up putting and blowing. The cab
man soon bought back his horse for $50.
The "sold men" offered to reimburse the
fortunate one, who had found property suf-
ticient to nay his debt, if he would not "let
on" about the affair at home.-D'y Goods
Drummer.
THE RECENT EARTHQUAKEs.-Ther can
now be no doubt that there is a direct correl-
lation between earthquake disturbances in
Southern Europe and on our Atlantic Slope.
The great earthquake in Charleston last Sep
tember followed Immediately after the one
in Greece (within two days., and cores
ponding or reactionarv quakes were like
wise felt in the Charleston district within
about the same period after the recent earth
quake in Italy and Southern France. Near
ly all newspaper reports of these disturb
ances give the direction of their movement,
and they are often quite contradictory.
The probability is that there is no longitu-
dinal motion of the. earth during the earth
quakes, except by vibration, but that as the
name implies, it simply quakes or qulVers,
upheaves and subsidies. But if the agita-
tion is communicated from the actual point
of other and remote regions through any
subterranean connection, and to that extent